Part of keeping yourself front-of-mind with your customers and clients is contact—how do you do that when the entire economic model of interaction is disrupted?

Ideally, you would have already begun mobile contact.

The reasoning is fairly obvious: More than ever, people are glued to their phones. Why not take advantage of one of the world’s most powerful and instantaneous message delivery tools?

You can achieve this on social media or through an email campaign, of course. Consumers invariably use some combination of both platforms on their mobile devices.

But one of the most fascinating and intriguing options isn’t social or email, but by good, old-fashioned SMS messaging.

There is real momentum in marketing via mobile messaging: straight to your client’s text inbox, where data shows they are highly likely to open and read. Remember: A new normal means your customers are behaving differently. The convenience of a handheld device for delivering a message cannot be overlooked.

BusinessWire, for example, examined a Zipwhip poll of 1,000 consumers and 1,000 businesses specifically about their habits and preferred behaviors around the concept of SMS (short message service), as well as the benefits of using SMS marketing. Their findings:

• Near-universal, native support in every phone. A text is a text is a text, at least when it’s coming from a business. Whether it’s going to an iPhone or Android phone and regardless of the user’s preference for native mobile messaging or an app like Whatsapp, the potential reach is massive. Why? The text will go through. Your message will be received—and most likely read.

• Even better, audiences are already using texts to hear from companies and organizations they know. More than 75 percent of polled consumers said they are already receiving texts from businesses.

Furthermore, Forbes examined mobile marketing efficacy and habits, too. Sourcing a variety of studies, one article pointed out some data that should make any business—but especially a small, local one struggling to capture attention during economic hardship—raise an eyebrow or two:

• Attention is readily available, and the implications are massive: An Asurion study found the average person checks their phone an incredible 80 times a day.
• TechJury data shows that 90 percent of consumers read text messages within three minutes of receiving them—if you combine this tactic with, say, an instant offer or incentive, you’ll know you have your audiences’ attention.
• Lastly, Gartner Marketing estimates text message open rates to be as high as 98 percent and response rates up to 45 percent. Compare that to the same data for email marketing—which clock in, respectively, at just 20 percent and 6 percent—and it becomes clear which is more effective.

If you are going to consider mobile messaging as part of your marketing strategy, make sure to take the time to outline your plan:

Be wary of abusing this powerful tool in your clients’ pockets and avoid over-messaging, for starters.

Consider your automation options, too. There are a number of quality options out there ranging from OK to excellent; we really like Attentive for their tools and customer service, but they a better fit for businesses with an established online presence. 

For a small business, just starting out, SlickText is a good option.

And remember to mix things up. If all your texts are exploding offers, your customers will begin to tune you out, no matter how appealing your deals might be.

Keep a sense of community in mind—after all, during this time, you are likely reaching people while they’re in their homes, often during private moments.

Developing a thoughtful mobile messaging strategy is key!